


The Red Staff

by Fangirlwriting



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Because they need love, Brooke Lohst Deserves Better, Christine Canigula Appreciation, Fantasy, Feminist Themes, Good Chloe Valentine, Hurt/Comfort, If You Can't Tell Yet, Jenna Rolan Needs Love, Multi, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, This One Is About The Girls, War, and appreciation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26831023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlwriting/pseuds/Fangirlwriting
Summary: Christine couldn't say she had been happy living in her village with her best friend Rich as if nothing was wrong.  She had wanted to do something to help with the war that was going on.  But this hadn't been what she meant.When Christine and Rich's village is attacked by Squip soldiers and they're the only two that make it out, they both are left with not many options, and decide to go after a long shot.
Relationships: Brooke Lohst & Jenna Rolan, Christine Canigula & Chloe Valentine, Christine Canigula & Rich Goranski, Christine Canigula/Jeremy Heere, Jake Dillinger & Chloe Valentine, Jeremy Heere & Brooke Lohst, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell, Madeline/Chloe Valentine, Michael Mell & Jenna Rolan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, welcome to my new story! This one is set in a very different world than the ones I usually write in, and due to that fact, I figured it would be helpful to provide a map. There's a lot missing right now, because if I added everything that was on my key map I would spoil half the story, so as the story progresses, I'll add new parts and put new maps at the beginning of the chapters (or the end if there happens to be something you learn in the chapter). Anyway, enjoy!

__

_The Squips original takeover was swift and permanent. They took a small town in the north, kidnapped and brainwashed everyone there, and started advancing south with their army. Having lost the element of surprise, however, the towns they met as they advanced further south were not nearly as easy to conquer, and some resist to this day._

_But the Squips are still a formidable enemy, and it would be foolish not to take them seriously. A rebellion formed quickly and grew to a large size, and though still much smaller than the Squips, they have managed to defend themselves and other towns with their efforts. But many fear they will soon cease to be enough._

_Some believe there may be another way. It is rumored the mystical Red Staff can save the fallen from the Squips brainwashing, and has the potential to bring down the Squips as a whole. It is said that only one pure of heart and with a will to help others can find the staff and wield it safely, and if another tries they risk something horrible happening to them. While some have dismissed the staff as a fool’s quest, others believe it is really out there, and have tried to find it, hoping for the glory or power it would give them in this fight. But so far, none have been successful._

_And so the world struggles on, waiting for an advantage in this fight that grows more desperate every day. But if the staff truly is out there, it could save us all, if only one who is pure of heart and with the right will goes to search…_

…

“So you’re still on that, huh Christine?”

Christine turned from the children who were gazing at her in awe to find Rich smirking at her from his spot leaning against the doorway.

“The Red Staff doesn’t exist,” Rich said. “It’s just a story people tell to give themselves hope.”

“Rich. Can we try not to get rid of the magic for the children?” Christine asked, putting a hand on her hip.

“My mommy says hope is the most magical thing of all,” one of the little boys, Steven, piped up.

Christine smiled back at him. “See? There you go.”

She was about to say something else when a voice from the hallway called, “Lunch!” and all the kids hopped up in excitement, dashing off towards their school’s cafeteria.

“You really believe in that staff?” Rich asked once the last of the children had run off. He had a different tone in his voice that Christine was pretty sure meant he actually wanted an answer. She sighed and turned to face him.

“I don’t know what to believe. I know that we’re not doing nearly enough to help end this war, and people in this town are starting to lose hope. If thinking of something like the Red Staff gives them hope and wants to make them do something about it, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.”

“Oh, so you’re participating in spreading propaganda to the children, I get it,” Rich said, in a tone that was clearly not serious.

“No, that was just cause it’s the kind of thing that will fascinate them,” Christine said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I figured.” Rich walked closer and nudged Christine with his side in concern. “Are you really going to keep trying to convince the elders to let you fight?”

“Not… fight,” Christine said hesitantly. “I don’t want to hurt people. Even if they’re Squip soldiers, it’s possible they’ve just been brainwashed. But I could do something helpful! I could help injured people, or go on data missions or something, or—” Christine sighed. “I just want to feel like I’m being helpful. Why won’t they let me do anything?”

“Maybe because you’re 17?” Rich muttered under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Christine sighed, throwing her hands up. “If they think I’m too young, shouldn’t _they_ do something? Rich, I know I simplify some of this stuff for the kids, but we are going to lose this war if we continue to sit back and do nothing.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Rich sighed. “Ask them again when you turn 18.”

Christine groaned, and both her and Rich walked out of the room where Christine had storytime, indoors during the winter due to the cold. Their lunch didn’t last that much longer, and Christine had used the first ten minutes of it to eat and the rest of it for storytime, so she and Rich both headed back towards their area of the school. All of the kids were already inside the cafeteria, and Christine and Rich walked past them, down the small hallway, and into the classroom where the junior students were taught. They were a pretty small village, so the kids of all ages were taught in the same building.

School didn’t last long after lunch, and Christine and Rich themselves lived next to each other, so they walked home together. Rich went to Christine’s house that day, since their families almost always had dinner together, and tonight was no exception. That was how they had met as kids, Christine had discovered that Rich’s family was having chicken for dinner, and she wanted chicken, and Rich had already invited them over when she begged so it was only fair.

The two of them and their families had been through a lot together over the years. Christine had been the one to run and get help when Rich broke his leg climbing a tree, and the one to encourage him to climb it again after the leg healed. Rich had been the first one to read Christine all of the books and plays he loved, which over the years turned into both of them finding an interest in english and theatre. They were part of all the village plays. Christine had been the first one to land an apprenticeship with the blacksmith, and Rich followed shortly after due to hanging around Christine whenever she was there and Christine asking her if it was alright. Christine and her parents had helped Rich come out as bi when he was scared his own family wouldn’t accept him (he was wrong, there was a lot of hugging involved), and Rich had told Christine about asexuality several years later when she was confused about her own identity.

Christine’s parents had helped Rich’s whole family when his mother was killed by Squip soldiers. That was the year Rich and his brother Matt came to stay with them for a while when their father wouldn’t stop getting angry at them. Christine’s parents had insisted he talk to someone, and luckily the village next to theirs had a counselor that helped him work through everything he was going through. Rich and Matt went to see them more than a few times too. It had taken a lot of time, but things got better, and now Rich and Matt lived with their father again.

Dinners were a common occurrence again now. There would always be a different feel to it without Mrs. Goranski there, but they all still loved each other, they laughed together, and Christine wouldn’t trade these relationships for anything.

That night they were eating a stew Christine’s father, James, had made that was admittedly mostly composed of potatoes, since they were in such easy supply right now. Matt was currently talking about the latest play Christine and Rich had done.

“And overall it was okay, but I thought the second act could use a little work…”

“Screw you, Matt,” Rich said, not at all seriously, as he took another bite of stew. “If the second act needs worth you should join and work on it yourself.”

“Oh sure, I’d love to run around with all the other kids your age,” Matt teased. “It would be great.”

“Hey, you’re barely older than we are!” Rich exclaimed, and Matt laughed.

Christine’s mother, Samantha, turned to her while they both started to bicker in the background. “So how was storytime today?”

“It was good,” Christine said with a smile. “I told them the Legend of the Red Staff.”

James frowned at her. “Are you sure that’s a good story to tell?” he asked. “Children could get the wrong idea.”

Christine gave him a look. “You don’t believe the Red Staff is real?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I do know that kids are much more likely to decide that they’re the chosen one and venture off into the unknown trying to be a hero.”

“Dad, I know what I’m doing,” Christine said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes at her father. “Besides, Rich already ruined the magic for the children.”

Rich paused from his half-argument with Matt in order to glare at Christine. “I heard my name, and whatever you said you’re wrong.”

Mr. Goranski chuckled across the table. “I can guarantee whatever she said is absolutely right. Unless she was trying to do something crazy like compliment you.”

Christine laughed, and took in the warm feeling in the room with a satisfied sigh. Dinners with both of their families were one of her favorite things to do. The mood overall was always peaceful and happy.

Which is why no one was expecting a crash that caused the whole cottage to shake.

Christine fell out of her chair, and only managed to avoid landing on her face by grabbing onto the table. “What was that?” she cried. She reached out for Rich, who had pulled himself up using the table and was offering his hand.

“Stay here, we’ll go find out,” Samantha said, pushing her back towards her seat.

“What? No, Mom!”

But both her and Rich’s parents and Matt were already running from the cottage.

Christine lasted about three seconds before grabbing Rich and pulling him after her. “Come on!”

“Wait, Christine, they said to stay here!”

Christine grabbed her newest sword from it’s spot on the mantle (her parents had been very proud to display it), before sprinting out the back door and ducking into the spot under the porch that hid them from viewers.

“Christine—”

“Shh!”

Rich stayed quiet, and they both crept forward to what had for many years been their spot to spy on people passing the cottage— usually their parents when they were trying to sneak out.

To Christine’s horror, what they were met with this time was not angry parents, but instead Squip soldiers dragging chained people across the front of their house— those people including their parents.

“Mom, Dad!” Christine whispered, shifting her sword to her side and about to jump back out to help them, when Rich grabbed her arm.

“Christine, no!” he hissed.

Christine whirled back around. “What— Rich, that’s our family! We can’t just—”

“Think about it, Chrissy. There’s several hundred soldiers out there. If we try to help we’ll just get captured too. We need to stay—”

The thud of boots sounded overhead as people marched into their house. Christine and Rich both slid closer together, and Christine dropped her sword in favor of holding Rich close. There was a series of loud crashes that were echoed in houses around them, and Christine pulled in a panicked gasp.

The house raiding ended in minutes, and by that time the rest of the people in the village had all been gathered in the center of the town.

As Christine watched, Steven was pulled gently out of the crowd by his arm.

“Rich!” she hissed.

“Shh!”

“Hi there,” the Squip soldier cooed. “What’s your name?”

Steven shrunk back, but squeaked out his name.

“Steven, could you do me a favor and look around and see if anyone here is missing that you know?”

Christine’s blood ran cold. “We have to run,” she whispered.

“We don’t have any supplies! We need water, and—”

“Rich we have to go _now.”_ Christine tucked her sword into her side again and pulled them both towards the exit from their hiding place. She looked around quickly and saw no Squip soldiers in their line of sight.

They both crept out from under the porch and walked as quietly as possible towards the back of the house.

“The woods,” Christine whispered. “We’re gonna have to run for it.”

Rich nodded silently. They both reached the edge of their house when Christine glanced back over her shoulder and locked eyes with her mother. Her eyes widened. She nodded ever so slightly, and Christine nodded back, tears welling in her eyes. She mouthed ‘I love you,’ hoping the message got across. Samantha smiled sadly, and Christine turned, grabbed Rich’s hand, and ran.

…

They kept running. Luckily they had both eaten a fair amount of dinner before the attack, so they would have energy for at least a little longer. Unfortunately, the winter and the snow that started coming down didn’t bode well for her light cloak and Rich’s thin long-sleeved shirt. At least they had a source of water.

“‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,’” Christine murmured to Rich when it started snowing.

“‘But I have promises to keep,’” Rich said quietly back. “‘And miles to go before I sleep.’” He’d confirmed what Christine was pretty sure they had both already decided on.

They were getting them back.

Doing it tonight wasn’t going to be likely, though, as it had been a long time since they’d started running, and Christine had started to shake from the cold, enough that it was getting hard to cut branches out of the way with her sword when she needed to.

“S-Snowy Evening aside,” Christine said quietly. “We should f-find a place to sleep.” She pulled her cloak tighter around herself. “We’re not going to make it if we t-t-try to walk all night.”

“Where? There’s nothing unt-t-til the next village.”

The next closest village was in fact on the other side of the woods they were walking through, but that was a day’s walk away at least. And they couldn’t sleep in a tree. All the branches were too high to climb, not to mention the snow that would be coming down on them all night long.

“Maybe there’s a c-cave?” Christine suggested.

“Maybe, but I don’t know if we should c-c-count on it.”

“Well then what—” Christine cut herself off as she shivered. “What do we do?”

“I d-don’t—” Rich stopped, and Christine stopped with him.

“What?” she asked.

Rich pointed ahead, and Christine followed his finger to see…

“A t-treehouse,” Christine breathed. “How c-c-close are we to the village?”

“I don’t know but let’s just st-t-tay here for tonight. If it is c-close we can find it tomorrow.”

Christine nodded in agreement and they both took the shaky steps forward until they reached the tree, about a hundred or so feet away.

Christine handed Rich her sword before she managed to shakily climb up to the treehouse, and took the sword back from Rich before he did the same.

The treehouse wasn’t nearly as barren as Christine had been expecting, and she held her sword close to make sure it didn’t get mixed up, because the tree house was full of all kinds of weapons.

“I f-feel kind of unsafe,” Rich said, rubbing his arms seemingly to stop himself from shivering. Christine set her sword down close and started to do the same.

“Well, it’s better than being out in the c-cold,” she said, leaning closer to Rich so they could hopefully share some body heat to warm them up. “We can k-keep going tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Rich blew some warm breath on his hands and continued to rub his arms. “That sounds good.”

Christine sniffed and put a hand over her mouth. “Rich…” she whispered. “What… what are we gonna…”

Rich sniffed too, clearly trying to hide it, and wiped at his eyes. “I don’t know,” he whispered.

Christine grabbed Rich and pulled him close for a hug, and Rich instantly wrapped his arms around her. They breathed for a couple seconds, but it wasn’t long before both of them were sobbing.

But one thing Christine knew about pain is that it was always easier when shared, and so it also wasn’t long after that until they were sniffing and wiping at their eyes, and smiling at each other in determination.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Christine said firmly. “It’s gonna be okay because we’re going to save them. All of them.”

Rich nodded. “Who could stop the two of us? We’re the best damn team in the world.”

Christine beamed. “Darn right we are.”

They both found a spot in the middle of the treehouse and moved the weapons in it towards the walls. Christine tucked her sword close to her side and they both fell asleep even as the sun was rising.


	2. Chapter 2

“And… there you go,” Madeline said, plopping the last handful of firewood into Chloe’s arms.

“Mads, I could marry you,” Chloe said, only half joking.

“Geez, Chlo, at least propose first,” Madeline said, giving Chloe a playful kiss on the cheek.

“I’d smack you if I wasn’t holding firewood.”

“Sure ya would. Walk you back?”

“No. Go away. I’m breaking up with you.”

Madeline smiled as she fell into step beside Chloe. The walk to the treehouse wouldn’t be long from here, but it would always be more pleasant if she shared it with someone.

Aside from weapons, the treehouse Chloe and Jake had built as kids was also used as a storage space for firewood or food that wouldn’t perish in the wintertime. Madeline had been a recent addition to the number of people allowed to enter.

They were lucky it wasn’t far from the place where Madeline chopped wood, especially because she wasn’t  _ technically _ allowed to do so yet, so they often did it in the middle of the night. They were running a little late this particular day, so they’d have to hurry back.

Chloe reached the bottom of the treehouse first, and grabbed for the ladder even as she started to pull herself up the slabs nailed into the wood. She reached the top, glanced inside… and nearly fell back off the tree.

“Who the fuck are you?!”

The girl in the treehouse screamed as she bolted upright and swung a sword Chloe had never seen before towards her. All of the sudden movement caused the boy sleeping next to her to wake up, and he screamed and jumped backwards, nearly landing right on top of another sword.

“What the fuck is going on?! Who’s in there?!” Madeline screamed from her spot a couple rungs below.

“Who are you?!” Chloe snapped again, ignoring Madeline’s question.

“That depends!” the girl screamed back, shifting her sword until it was pointed at Chloe’s neck, effectively rendering her incapable of moving. “Are you a Squip soldier?”

“That depends, are you a Squip soldier?” Chloe shot back easily.

Both of them stared at each other for a moment.

“Christine, I don’t think she’s a Squip soldier,” the boy said quietly.

“Christine” seemed to agree with him, and a second later lowered her sword. “Sorry we broke into your, uh, treehouse,” she said quietly. “We’d been walking for hours.”

Chloe hesitantly climbed up and took up the last of the free space available in the treehouse. “That’s… alright,” she said hesitantly, waving behind her for Madeline to come up. “But why were you in the woods?”

Both Christine and the boy turned to each other in what seemed to be sorrow. “Our village got attacked,” the boy whispered. “As far as I know, we’re the only ones who made it out.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Chloe said softly, as Madeline pulled herself up to hang over the edge of the treehouse. “I’m Chloe, this is my girlfriend Madeline. Are you guys okay?”

Both of them looked away, and Chloe realized that was kind of a stupid question. “You can… you can come back to my house with me, if you want.”

“You’re going to let these strangers sleep in your house?” Madeline asked, raising an eyebrow at Chloe in bafflement.

“I’m not going to let them sleep here,” Chloe retorted. She turned back to Christine and the other boy. “You guys can stay for a day if you need to. Do you have anywhere else to go?”

“We don’t know yet,” Christine said quietly. “We haven’t really had much time to come up with a plan.”

“Well, you should at least come back and eat something,” Chloe said.

“That sounds nice,” the boy muttered.

Chloe put the firewood in a corner and climbed down to join Madeline, who was already on the ground. Christine and the boy followed a couple seconds later.

“I’m Rich, by the way,” the boy said once he reached the ground. “And that’s Christine.”

Chloe smiled a little bitterly. “I wish I could say it was nice to meet you,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. “But given the circumstances, it’s really not.”

Christine chuckled a little and pulled something tighter around herself. That was when Chloe noticed how poorly dressed they both were for the weather. That made sense now that she thought about it. They’d probably had to run pretty quickly. Yeah, she had to get them out of the cold.

Madeline walked almost back to Chloe’s home with them, then gave her a quick kiss before heading off to her own cottage nearby.

Chloe led the three of them inside the house, shutting the door quietly after them.

“I don’t think my mom will mind that you’re here,” she said quietly. “But she’ll definitely mind if we wake her up this early, and trust me, you do not want to get on her bad side. Hang on, I’m gonna start a fire and then I’ll make you something to eat.”

“Thank you,” Christine said quietly. “We really appreciate this. You didn’t have to let us stay here.”

Chloe waved back towards her dismissively. “Don’t mention it.”

The fire didn’t take long to start, and Chloe went and grabbed some leftover bread from dinner for the two of them to eat.

“Here you go,” she said, passing it to both of them. They both started eating pretty much immediately.

“So, we have a guest room, there’s only one bed but it’s pretty big,” Chloe said. “Is that alright?”

“That’s wonderful, thank you,” Rich murmured.

Neither of them were saying much, but Chloe couldn’t exactly blame them. They must have been through a lot today. So she said goodnight, left them to eat in silence, and headed back to her own bedroom. She only had a couple hours rest before her mom no doubt woke up and would be questioning what these people were doing in her house.

…

_ “Chloe!” _

Chloe jerked upright to her mom, Stacy, shaking her shoulders.

“What are these people doing in our house?!”

Chloe collapsed back on the bed and pulled the pillow back over her head. “I found them in the treehouse,” she groaned. “They’re whole village was taken by Squip soldiers, just let them stay here for the day, alright?”

“I’m sorry, they’re whole village was  _ what?” _

“Mom. Too. Early.”

“Chloe Valentine, you are going to get up and tell me what happened.”

Chloe groaned and pulled the pillow off of her head. “I just did.”

“We have two children in our house who escaped from Squip soldiers? Chloe, do you know how dangerous that is?”

“They’re not staying forever,” Chloe said, rubbing her eyes. “They were sleeping in my treehouse with no food, I figured we’d just give them supplies and send them on their way.”

Stacy sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “They leave tonight,” she said firmly.

Chloe nodded. “That’s what I was planning anyway,” she said, before collapsing back on the bed again.

“Oh no, missy, you’re getting up now.”

“Wha— Mom, come on.”

“Nope. I sure as hell am not making breakfast for the two strangers I found in my house this morning.”

Chloe groaned again and dragged herself back to a sitting position. The only thing she knew how to make that was breakfast-appropriate was scrambled eggs, so she hoped Rich and Christine didn’t mind that.

Both of them were sitting at the table talking when Chloe dragged herself into the kitchen.

“Eggs,” she grumbled as she passed Rich and Christine.

“Uh, okay?” Rich said hesitantly. “Is that what you’re making?”

Chloe gave an affirmative grunt and pulled out a pan. She grabbed a couple of eggs and cracked three of them in the pan for Rich and Christine to split.

She almost fell asleep at the stove a couple times when she heard a knock on the door.

“I got it,” Rich said, hopping up and walking over to the door. Chloe heard him pull it open, and turned around to see him staring at Jake.

“Uh… hi?” Jake said in confusion.

“Jake!” Chloe called. “Come make eggs!”

“What?”

Chloe left the eggs on the stove and walked around to the other side of the room, grabbed Jake’s arm and pulled him back over to the stove. “I’m too tired to do this shit, make eggs.”

“Would you like to first explain why there are two strangers in your house?”

“Yeah, just…” Chloe yawned as she leaned against the counter. “Just give me a sec.”

Jake sighed and picked up the spatula to finish making the eggs.

“Hi, I’m Jake,” he called over his shoulder. “Sorry, my best friend is not a morning person.”

Rich and Christine both introduced themselves, and ended up telling Jake what happened, partly because they seemed to want to do it themselves and partly because Chloe was still too tired to function.

She started to wake up closer to ten in the morning (after Jake made her a cup of coffee), and helped Christine and Rich gather what supplies they could spare, which included water, food for a few days, and spare clothes that were at least heavier than what they had on. They were looking over what they’d given them to make sure they didn’t need anything else when the screaming started.

Chloe jerked upright at the first sound, suddenly much more awake than a couple seconds ago. “What was that?”

She and Jake both jumped up from the table headed over to the windows. Outside, a Squip soldier was pulling a child out of a house by the hair.

Chloe jerked back and stared at Jake. “Treehouse,” they said simultaneously.

“What’s going on?” Christine asked, standing and starting to walk over to the window.

“No, stay back!” Chloe said, pushing her back as she and Jake walked back over to the table. “It’s Squips.”

“What? They just found our village yesterday!” Rich exclaimed. “I know we’re not that far apart, but I didn’t think they could find this village that fast!”

“Well, evidently they have,” Jake said. “I’ll go get your mom, Chloe.”

“Thanks,” Chloe said, turning back to Christine and Rich. “Do either of you know how to use that sword?”

“Um… we know how to  _ make _ swords…” Rich said hesitantly.

“We know how to weaponize our acting skills,” Christine muttered.

“Okay, then you’re gonna stand at the edge of the woods and be our vantage point to escape to. You good with that?”

Rich and Christine exchanged a glance. “Escape to?” Christine asked.

“Yeah.” Jake came out of the back hallway with Stacy along with her and Chloe’s heavy cloaks, both of them now looking very determined. “We’re getting as many people out as possible.”

Christine narrowed her eyes and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Rich nodded too, and all five of them crept towards the back door, Chloe and Stacy putting their cloaks on as they went.

Chloe looked out the window to check for soldiers, and when none were around, she opened the back door and beckoned everyone out. They headed for the woods, going as fast as they could while still being cautious.

Jake made it to the treehouse first, and swung himself around and up the tree at the same time. He made it up in a couple seconds, and Chloe followed him closely, taking the grenades he passed down and handing them to her mom to put in the bag they brought with them.

“What are those?” Christine asked as she spotted them.

“Grenades,” Jake said. “I made them. They’re long distance weapons.”

“Oh, you’re a blacksmith?”

“Less a blacksmith, more a weapons expert of sorts? Here’s your bow, Chloe.”

Chloe took the bow, quiver, and backup quiver Jake was offering her and passed them down too, and finally took a staff for her mom. Then she climbed quickly back down the ladder, followed closely by Jake. With that, they all ran for the village again, getting there slower than Chloe would like due to being weighed down by the weapons, but it couldn’t really be helped.

“I say we get children and elderly first,” Jake said quickly to Chloe and Stacy, who nodded after him before the three of them sprinted into the town, Chloe shooting one last quick “Stay here!” over her shoulder at Rich and Christine.

They managed to get the twins from next door, Ms. Simmons from across the road, and a couple of others that Chloe didn’t know by name before being met with a Squip soldier. Jake threw a grenade at the ground next to them and knocked them into a house. Hopefully they were just unconscious.

Chloe heard footsteps coming from the alleyway next to them, and leapt around the corner with her bow already aimed to fire, only to be met with Madeline instead. She lowered her bow and sighed in relief. “Are you alright?”

“Relatively speaking,” Madeline said, lowering her ax. “So how’s your morning been? Are we still on for dinner tonight?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Oh, absolutely. Come on, Jake, Mom, and I are getting the kids out.”

Madeline ran after Chloe back around to where Jake was now helping Jonathan and his sister Amanda back towards the woods.

There was a loud scream from nearby that sounded familiar, and she grabbed Madeline’s hand and pulled her forwards with her to keep her from sprinting after it immediately.

By the time they made it to the woods again, half of the village was on fire, and Chloe was fighting to breathe past the lump in her throat. They managed to get a couple more kids out before the soldiers were too close to reaching the edge of the village, and they had to get everyone in the woods to safety. Luckily, someone had a dragon that was kept in the area next to the woods. Pretty much everyone could fit on it, and Chloe only stopped to get a moment to breathe when everyone was on its back.

She looked around to make sure she could still see Jake and her mom, and found them by Christine and Rich.

She pulled Madeline over with her and stopped just behind Jake.

“Where are you guys going?” Rich asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Madeline said with a sigh. “This has been a very sudden and intense morning and—” She stopped with a hiccup. Chloe turned to her in concern as she put a hand over her mouth. “Oh shit, Chloe, that scream was Mom, wasn’t it?”

Chloe instantly wrapped her arms around Madeline, who buried her face in her shoulder. To her surprise, Christine walked over too and rubbed Madeline’s back.

“I lost my Mom yesterday,” she murmured quietly. “She’s probably on the way back to Squip HQ right now.”

Madeline let out a choked sob, and stayed buried in Chloe’s arms for another couple seconds before pulling back and wiping her eyes. “We, um. We have to go. Now. Are you two coming?”

“That depends on where you’re going,” Christine said suddenly. “Because we have a plan.”

“We do?” Rich asked, sounding like that was news to him.

Christine nodded, smiling in determination. “You gave me the idea,” she said, turning to Stacy.

“I did? What did I do?” Stacy asked in surprise.

“If we’re going to fight the Squips and get our villages back, we’re going to need a lot of power and the element of surprise,” Christine said. She pointed at Stacy’s staff. “We’re looking for the Red Staff.”

“What? Christine, that’s insane,” Rich said. “We don’t even know if that thing’s real.”

“We don’t know that it’s not,” Christine said, grabbing Rich’s hands and pulling them close to her as if to help make her point. “And we have to do something.”

“We could join the rebellion?”

“The Squips clearly have some kind of new advantage that is helping them move faster. The rebellion isn’t going to be enough. We have to look for something more.” She turned hesitantly to Chloe. “Could you drop us off at the next village?”

Chloe nodded. “As long as we go now. You can chase daydreams all you want, but even if they turn out to be true, you’re still going to need help. What we’re going to need is an army. And I’m gonna build one out of the towns we have left.”

“I’ll be helping you with that,” Jake said, nudging Chloe with his side.

“Me too,” Stacy said.

“Like I’m leaving you to do something like that on your own,” Madeline said, smiling at her.

“Lots of the villages don’t want to get involved,” Christine said. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yeah,” Chloe said with a smirk. “Worst comes to worst, I have persuasion magic I can use.”

“Hey, only if it’s life or death,” Jake said, elbowing Chloe in the side.

“Yeah, of course,” Chloe said. “Come on, we’ve got a dragon to ride. Let’s head out.”


	3. Chapter 3

Christine had never seen a dragon growing up, much less ridden on one. Her village was too small to warrant any kind of long-distance travel. But flying was just as amazing as any kid ever dreamed.

Well… clearly not to Rich, who was holding on to her for dear life. But Christine was mystified by flying above the clouds of snow, feeling the winter sun on her cheeks and the cold air that blew her hood back. By the time night was about to fall they were still flying, but Chloe seemed to be ready to land, which was good, because it was clear everyone was ready to be done, and sick of having to sit so close together.

“Okay,” Stacy said, turning to everyone behind her. “So we’re going to land outside the village. We shouldn’t stay here for long with the Squip soldiers suddenly moving so quickly. So we’re going to resupply with enough food for a couple days, and head to the next village to try and gather more people who want to fight.

There were groans at the thought of riding on the dragon again, which Stacy immediately shot down with a loud exclamation of “Yeah, yeah, would you rather be dead?”

It was silent for about five seconds before Stacy turned back to the owner of the dragon, who was also the one flying it, and telling them to land.

“Oh no,” Rich said, burying his face in the dragon.

“Hey,” Christine said, leaning back towards his ear. “‘Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.’”

“‘Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies like a snowflake falling on water,’” Rich murmured into the dragon’s back.

“What are you doing?” Chloe asked, giving them a curious look.

“Oh, we quote poetry at each other when we’re stressed,” Christine said.

Chloe shook her head in slight bafflement. “Wow. You are both huge nerds.”

“Thank you,” Rich said, managing to pull his head up a little and smile at Chloe, even as the dragon began to descend.

Christine slid over and wrapped an arm around Rich’s shoulders as the dragon continued to do so, finally landing just outside of a village that looked to be smaller than their own.

“Okay, we’re just gonna stay here for the night, and then we’re leaving on foot. I say we head to the rebellion and learn everything we can about the Red Staff, and then decide the best way to go about finding it.”

“As long as I don’t have to ride on the dragon again,” Rich muttered.

The village was small enough that the noise must have alerted everyone, as lights were coming on and people were emerging from houses.

Christine waved awkwardly at the people who were approaching. She and Rich glanced at each other and seemed to agree to let the adults of the group take this one, as Stacy and a couple of others they didn’t know the names of walked forward to talk to the approaching people. The two of them hung back with Jake, Chloe, and Madeline.

“So you’re really not going to come with us?” Madeline asked.

“I think finding this thing is our best bet,” Christine said. “If the legends are true, we can use it to fight the Squips and save the people in our village.”

_ “If _ the legends are true,” Jake pointed out. “You have no way of really knowing that.”

“He has a point, Christine,” Rich said.

“People have been fighting the Squips their way for as long as we’ve been alive, Rich,” Christine protested. “It’s clearly not working.”

“Are you really sure chasing possibilities is the best way to go about it, though?”

Christine gave Rich a determined look. “‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I?’”

Rich sighed. “‘I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’”

“Uh… what are they doing?” Jake asked.

“They’re quoting poetry,” Chloe said. “Because they’re huge nerds.”

“Thank you,” Rich and Christine said at the same time.

Christine turned back to Rich and gave him an imploring look.

Rich sighed. “I still don’t know if this is a good idea,” he said. “But I trust your instincts. I guess we’re not going with you guys,” he finished, turning to the other three.

Madeline shrugged. “Okay. It’s your life.”

“We are still staying for the night, though, right?” Rich asked, turning back to Christine.

“Of course,” Christine replied. “We’ll gather some supplies tomorrow morning, enough to make it to the rebellion. And then we can head out.”

“Okay,” Rich said with a nod. “Now let’s go find a bed in the inn before all the rooms are taken.”

…

The villagers had never been to the rebellion, so none of them were really sure how much food Christine and Rich would need to get there, which was a little concerning. They at least managed to point them in the right direction.

Christine and Rich both said goodbye to Chloe, Jake, Madeline, and Stacy before they left, who were staying a little bit longer. They took a week’s worth of food with them, and headed west towards the rebellion. They brought a couple jars full of water, but there was still clearly going to be snow for a while, so they had that as a water source too. And this time they had weather-appropriate clothing.

“So, I guess this is goodbye for now,” Christine said, slinging the bag of food they were taking with them over her shoulder. “Thanks so much for all of your help.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Chloe said, waving her hand dismissively. “I mean, we’re kinda in the same boat now, right? We’re all gonna get our families back.” She held out a hand, and Christine shook it.

“We’ll be seeing you again,” Chloe said, and Madeline, Jake, and Stacy all nodded.

“We look forward to it,” Rich said, giving a mini-salute. “Go make your army.”

“I will,” Chloe said, putting her hand on her hip and giving a determined smile. “Good luck finding your probably nonexistent staff.”

“It’s real,” Christine insisted, as she and Rich both turned to start to walk into the distance. “And we’re gonna find it.”

“Good luck!” Jake called.

“You’ll need it!” Madeline called, followed by a quick “Ow!” that must have been someone elbowing her in the side.

“Be safe!” Stacy called.

Christine promised they would, and with that, they both started off.

The first day of travel was pretty uneventful. They ate some of the bread they’d taken with them for lunch, and stuck to the woods for cover, as was probably a good idea for people on the run from the Squips. The second day passed pretty much the same, and by the third day it was getting very monotonous.

So it was almost a relief on the fourth day when someone almost cut Rich’s head off.

They had just finished eating lunch, and had taken a short nap to prepare to keep walking until dinner. Christine stood up and stretched, and was about to walk over to the tree Rich was sleeping under and wake him up when there came the sound of a sword unsheathing.

Christine grabbed her own sword from the ground and whirled around towards Rich, and found a stranger standing with a sword pointed at Rich’s neck, who was somehow still sleeping through the whole thing.

“Who are you?” Christine asked, shifting closer. “Get away from my friend!”

“You and your friend are both near the top of the Squip’s most wanted list and I want to know why,” the stranger said.

Christine took a breath and tried to calm down and decide how much to reveal. She took a moment to take in the stranger. He was wearing a red cloak that had interesting looking patterns on it, arranged into what looked like some kind of images. Christine wasn’t sure what of, but they were clearly significant. He was taller than her and Rich, though that usually wasn’t saying much. He didn’t look particularly angry or threatening, which she supposed was good for Rich. His glasses looked like they were about to fall off his nose.

“We escaped when they attacked our village,” Christine said slowly. “We figured they’d be looking for us, but I didn’t realize we’d be near the top of their most wanted list. Are Chloe, Jake, Stacy and Madeline on there too?”

“Don’t know. I recognized you two, though,” the stranger said, seeming to relax, which must have meant he believed Christine’s explanation. “Brooke, you can come down from the tree.”

There was a thump behind her and Christine whirled around. “Brooke” was taking an arrow off of a bow, which must have been aimed at her from up in the tree.

Christine turned back around to face the other stranger, who was putting his sword away. “I’m Jeremy,” he said, adjusting his glasses after his sword was back in his sheath. “You’re Christine, right?”

Christine considered denying it, but he clearly already knew who she was. “Yeah. Hey, pro tip, maybe next time you want to meet someone, don’t point a sword at their sleeping friend’s neck?”

Jeremy smiled a little sheepishly. “Sorry. We thought you could be a threat.”

“Sleeping in the forest.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“Especially now,” Brooke added, walking around to Christine’s other side as she slung her bow over her shoulder. Christine gave her a longer glance. Brooke had long blonde hair and was wearing a brown tunic that was much less flashy than Jeremy’s cloak, but that was probably for the best. It couldn’t have been easy for Jeremy to blend in.

Christine nodded at her slowly. “That’s fair.”

Finally, Rich shifted over on the tree, stretched and looked up. “Chrissy?” he asked, yawning. “Who are these guys?”

“Well, I threatened to kill you about two minutes ago. Great observation skills, by the way,” Jeremy said.

“Wait, what?” Rich asked, standing up much more quickly.

“It’s fine, Rich, I think they thought we worked for the Squips or something.”

“Why would you work for them if you were on their most wanted list?” Brooke asked.

“You tell me, you guys are the ones who were threatening us.”

“Hang on. We’re on the Squips most wanted list?”

“Apparently,” Christine said with a sigh. “We’re gonna have to move faster.” She turned hesitantly to Jeremy and Brooke. “You wouldn’t happen to have a way to get to the rebellion quickly, would you?”

“As a matter of fact, we do,” Brooke said with a smile. “You’ve run into a couple of members of the rebellion.”

“You’re not gonna find it walking through the woods, though,” Jeremy said. “You need to follow the river.”

Christine and Rich exchanged a glance. “How far is the river from here?” she asked.

“Oh, not far at all. We just came from it,” Brooke said. “You can come back with us, if you want.”

“Um… give us a minute,” Rich said, walking over and grabbing Christine before pulling them both back over to the trees.

“So you think this is a trap?” he asked in a hushed voice.

Christine hesitated, biting her lip. “I don’t know. My gut says no, but trusting random people who try and kill you in the woods… isn’t usually the best idea?”

Rich nodded. “An excellent point.” He seemed to pause for a second in consideration. “How about we follow them until we see if they’re lying about the river? If they are, we can hide somewhere in the trees. If they’re not, rivers are usually a little more out in the open anyway, so we’ll have a chance to get away if we need to.”

“I think that’s a good idea.”

Christine picked up two of the bags as Rich grabbed the other two, and then they both turned back to face Jeremy and Brooke. “Okay, so which way to the river?” Christine asked.

They walked for about ten minutes before the woods opened up into a clearing that had a river running through it. Christine reached into her bag and pulled out one of the water jars, almost empty. “Is that water safe to drink?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jeremy replied. “The sprites help us out with that.”

“Sprites?” Christine took a couple steps forward and peered down into the river. “Oh, Rich, look! Water sprites!”

Rich came forward to look, and several water sprites looked up at them and waved. One of them flew upwards, bringing a section of the river with them, and dropped the water into Christine’s open jar.

Christine beamed at them. “Thank you!” she called, as the sprite waved again and hopped back into the river.

“We take really good care of the area,” Brooke said by way of explanation. “The forest and the animals and the river. The sprites thank us for it. The water sprites keep the water clean and safe to drink, the flower sprites make sure we always get enough of a harvest, the wood sprites help use the trees to hide us.” She chuckled. “And thanks to the fire sprites, I can light a fire in the pouring rain.”

Christine looked around and noticed many wood sprites and flower sprites poking their heads up from trees and plants and waving at Jeremy and Brooke, who waved right back with smiles of their own.

“That’s amazing,” Christine said, starting to grin.

They walked for another five minutes or so before the branches of the trees in front of them seemed to part, and they were met with a waterfall, falling off of the cliff above and spilling into a pond. It seemed to be a dead end, and Christine waited for Jeremy and Brooke to turn either right or left, but they just walked around the pond and started up the cliff towards the waterfall.

“Uh…” Christine said.

“Come on,” Brooke called with a wave.

Christine glanced back at Rich. This was normally the part when it was revealed they were being led to their deaths. She pulled her sword out and nodded hesitantly.

They both followed Jeremy and Brooke hesitantly up the cliff side, making sure to keep a safe distance behind them.

Jeremy glanced back as he reached the section of the path that led to a cave behind the waterfall. “You coming?”

“Uh…” Rich said.

Christine lifted her sword a little more. “We’re not quite sure we trust you yet?” she said hesitantly.

Jeremy smirked. “Good. I wouldn’t trust you if you did. Come on, we’ll go first.”

He and Brooke both walked into the cave entrance behind the waterfall. Christine glanced at Rich, who shrugged.

She held her sword a little tighter and headed towards the cave. Rich followed a couple steps behind her.

Christine turned and stepped into the cave, which was completely dark as far as she could see. That is, until Brooke held up a large stick that Christine hadn’t noticed her picking up. She held it up to a crack in the wall, and a couple of fire sprites popped out and lit the top of the stick on fire, lighting up the cave around them. Brooke thanked the fire sprites, who disappeared back into the crack in the stone.

“Come on,” Brooke said, starting to walk towards the back of the cave. “It’s not far.”

“Uh, does this cave expand or something, or is the rebellion just really small?” Rich asked as they both started forward.

“Neither,” Brooke said with a smile. “The cave isn’t a dead end. You’ll see.”

They followed Brooke and Jeremy to the back of the cave, around a turn that hadn’t been visible from the front, and then Brooke gently blew out the torch as the cave started to get lighter, causing Christine to shiver at the sudden cold. They went around one more turn, and then the cave opened up to the other side of the cliff, complete with sunlight that their eyes weren’t adjusted to anymore.

Christine put a hand over her eyes and peered down the cliff side to see what looked like a couple of smaller buildings, a larger one, and a farm. A river that must have been connected to the waterfall and pond flowed out of the bottom of the cliff, and back to a farm, where quite a few people were working.

“How is that possible? We’ve been coming upstream, the water shouldn’t flow that way,” Rich said, looking down at the river.

“That’s the water sprites again,” Jeremy said with a grin as they all started down the path. “We’d honestly be lost without them.”

“The farm is where we grow most of our crops,” Brooke explained. “The building behind it is the Dragon Stables.”

“Great, I know where I’ll be avoiding,” Rich muttered.

“The holding cells are back there too, but they’re hardly ever in use,” Brooke continued like Rich hadn’t spoken. “And the large building is the main one, where everyone spends most of their time if they’re not working or on a mission. We’ll give you a tour of that later. You can’t see it from here, but there’s a small building behind it. That’s the daycare.”

“You have a daycare?” Rich asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure,” Jeremy said. “A lot of people who end up here are desperate families, after all. They often have young ones that aren’t 13 yet— that’s when people start training, if they want to. Brooke and I were too young to train when we first got here, so we spent most of the time in the daycare while my dad trained and worked his way up the ranks. He’s second in command now.”

“Impressive,” Christine said.

“Oh yeah, we were too young to train alright,” Brooke teased, nudging Jeremy in the side. “Not like you let that stop you.”

“Wha— I want to fight!” Jeremy protested.

Brooke laughed, and Jeremy groaned and rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” he said before Brooke could say anything else. “We probably should go introduce you to Dad. That is, if you plan on training. Do you?”

Christine exchanged a glance with Rich. “Actually,” she said. “We’re not staying.”

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“We came here to learn everything we could about, um, something we need information about, and then we have to go. We’re trying to get our village back.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “That’s… a hell of a goal. You’re trying to do that by yourself?”

“It’s a plan-in-progress,” Christine admitted, rubbing the back of her neck.

Jeremy exchanged a glance with Brooke that Christine couldn’t read. Brooke shook her head. Jeremy opened his mouth to say something else.

“Well either way,” Brooke cut him off. “You should talk to Jeremy’s dad. He’ll be able to help you with stuff like that.”

“Awesome, thank you,” Christine said, deciding to brush off the look for now. “When can we talk with him?”

“Right after we give you a tour. If you’re not going to be staying here long might as well,” Brooke said as they reached the bottom of the cliff.

They made it to the main building about five minutes later, and we’re given the full grand tour. There were separate barracks for people who were training versus people who were already finished training or who weren’t going to train at all. There was a school, which was separate from the daycare, a cafeteria, just the one for everyone, a training room and a regular gym, an armory, where they both felt right at home, and a library, which produced similar feelings. After that they were lead into the management meeting room, where they met to make decisions and send people on missions and such. And from there, they went underground to the file space.

“Dad’s probably down here,” Jeremy said. “This time of day he’s usually organizing stuff.”

“Well you’re not wrong about that,” came a new voice. An older man walked out from behind a corner, holding a stack of scrolls. “Welcome back, Jeremy, Brooke. Who are the people you dragged along with you? Sorry you had to deal with them for so long, by the way,” he said, glancing at Christine and Rich. “I’m Paul.”

Christine laughed. “I’m Christine, this is Rich,” she said, gesturing to her right. “We’re kinda just here for information, if you’re willing to give it?”

“Ah, I see. Well, I’ll see what I can do.”

“We’ll see you upstairs,” Brooke said to Christine, waving as her and Jeremy walked away. Christine watched them for a couple steps before turning back to face Paul.

“So, what exactly are you two curious about?”

“We’re trying to find the Red Staff,” Christine said.

Paul raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Our village was attacked,” Rich said, rubbing at the back of his neck. Christine looked away. “We’re the only two who made it out. We’re trying to go after the Red Staff to see if we can help them.”

Christine thought for a second whether or not she should mention Chloe and her family and how they were trying to make an army, but they’d probably find out eventually anyway. She didn’t really want to get anyone else involved, especially without knowing if it could somehow put them in danger.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Paul said, sounding sincere. “Jeremy, Brooke and I were in a similar situation when we all came here together, and well… suffice it to say, I understand what you’re going through. I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thank you,” Christine said, smiling just a little, and went to sit with Rich on the benches by the door as Paul went to get the files they needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first poem quoted in this chapter is a little less known than the previous one, it's Flying at Night by Ted Kooser.
> 
> There's a main map update as well as the rebellion map!


	4. Chapter 4

“Look, I know what you’re going to say.”

Brooke dropped the last slab of meat in Bessie’s feeding trough and turned to face Jeremy. “Well that’s a start,” she said, crossing her arms. “Are you going to listen?”

“You haven’t even said it yet.”

Brooke glared at Jeremy, albeit in more exhaustion than anger. “Jeremy, we can’t. We have work to do here.”

“Look, I listened in on them talking to Dad—”

“Jeremy! That’s so rude!”

“Oh, come on, they were talking in the files room, that place is huge, and we were already down there! It would be more effort for me to  _ not _ listen in. But look, they’re going to leave tomorrow. They’re trying to find the Red Staff.”

“The Red Staff? The Dew Mountains Red Staff? Is that actually real?”

“Honestly, from everything Dad told them, I’m starting to think it might be.” Jeremy reached into a bag and pulled out a large stack of files. “Look, here’s what I heard.”

_ “Jeremy,” _ Brooke groaned.

“I already know, Brooke, come on.”

Brooke sighed and turned back to her slabs of meat. She picked the next one up and moved to the next stall down. “I’m not indulging you.”

“And you’d rather feed the dragons in silence? Why are you even doing this job? It’s not normally yours.”

“Steven was sick.”

“Come on, just let me tell you!”

Brooke groaned again, but said nothing else. Eventually, she waved a hand at Jeremy in the best “start talking” motion she could muster.

Jeremy grinned. “Thank you!” He opened the first file and sat down on the floor of the stable as Brooke moved across the aisle.

According to Jeremy’s stolen files, the Red Staff of the Dew Mountains was still a legend, but one that was seeming to get more likely as time passed. A couple people had been sent on missions to find it, usually people who volunteered for hopes of getting glory or fame. There were files on everything they knew about their missions, and even a map. Apparently they could make it most of the way by following Rockhold River. But so far, none had come back, and most were presumed dead.

“Well, duh,” Brooke said, taking her gloves off to wash them in the sink for the next time someone had to feed the dragons. “The whole point of the Red Staff is that the person has to have a pure heart with a will to help others. Glory and fame don’t exactly fall under that category.”

“Christine just wants to save her village, though,” Jeremy said. “That’s a pure heart and a will to help others if I’ve ever seen one. I want to help her. She might stand a real chance.”

Brooke sighed and hung up her gloves. “Jeremy,” she said, turning around. “Be honest with yourself.”

Jeremy hesitated and looked down at his feet. “Look, I just—”

“You know I’m not judging you Jere-bear. I think it’s a perfectly valid reason. But it’s not because you want to help Christine.”

Jeremy looked up at Brooke. “So why don’t you want to go if you think it’s a good reason?”

“I think it’s a  _ valid _ reason, Jeremy, I… I don’t think it’s a good one.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to see you get obsessed with this and end up like you were a few years ago. I love you, dummy. It was so hard seeing you like that.”

“It’s not like you had a frame of reference,” Jeremy muttered, crossing his arms.

“Jeremy.”

Jeremy looked up at Brooke, putting on full-power puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

“Now that’s just mean, Jere-bear. Come on.”

Jeremy groaned.

“Jeremy,” Brooke whispered, throwing out a last-ditch effort. “Please don’t go?”

Jeremy looked at Brooke again. He lasted about three seconds before something shifted in her face, and Brooke felt her heart sink.

“Okay,” Jeremy said. Brooke almost called him out right then and there, but if Jeremy was lying to her, he was going no matter what she said. Only one thing she could do now.

…

Brooke explained everything to Jeremy’s Dad, Paul, and he had seemed to understand that there wasn’t much he could do to stop either of them, if his heavy sigh was any indication. He gave Brooke supplies and permission to take Bessie, and then told her “If anything happens to my son” in a voice that nether of them took seriously. He loved Brooke just as much as he did Jeremy, after all.

Christine and Rich ate breakfast early, with Jeremy and Brooke both joining them in the cafeteria, and Jeremy still acting like nothing was up. Brooke wasn’t sure if Christine or Rich knew, but if they did they were doing a very good job of hiding it. She suspected they didn’t when she got Bessie, headed out of the dragon stables to watch them leave, and Jeremy was all but stalking them from behind.

“Going somewhere?”

Jeremy yelped and whirled around, looking up at her on the dragon a half a second later. Christine and Rich did the same a couple feet ahead of him.

“Brooke!” Jeremy called. “I was just— uh—”

Brooke sighed. “Climb on,” she said, gesturing to the space behind her. “Your dad said we can take her.”

Jeremy lit up. “You’re the best!” he cried, climbing on Bessie quickly and pulling Brooke into a hug.

“Uh, sorry, what’s happening?” Christine asked from back on the ground.

“I guess we’re going with you,” Brooke said, gesturing at the dragon. “To find your Red Staff.”

“Wait, you are?” Christine asked.

“Does this mean we have to ride the dragon?” Rich said warily.

“I mean, it’ll help us get away fast if we need to,” Brooke pointed out. “And cut down on travel time in general.”

Rich looked like he knew that Brooke was going to say that and simultaneously agreed and hated it.

Christine climbed up on the dragon first, followed shortly after by Rich who was muttering something about constellations being beneath them.

“Okay,” Brooke said. “So Bessie isn’t our fastest dragon, she’s pretty up there, but the next village is still far enough away that it’s probably going to take us most of the day to reach it. Does everyone have enough food for the journey?”

“I’m good!” Christine called.

“Let’s cast off,” Jeremy said.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to eat too much,” Rich muttered, looking down at the ground.

“Noted. Alright, hold on tight, we’re taking off.”

…

Brooke could very likely end up regretting going on this journey very quickly, but Christine and Rich were sure making it hard for her to think that.

Rich, once he eventually got slightly more used to being in the air, started talking a little more, and Brooke learned more about both him and Christine than she’d gotten a chance to yesterday. They were childhood best friends, just like her and Jeremy, and had grown up in the village that had used to be close to the front, although it was pretty far overtaken by it now.

They both had a slightly strange habit of quoting poetry when one of them was upset. They were clearly much more upset about their village than they let on. Brooke wondered if talking a little about what had happened when their village had been attacked would help. She’d have to try and find a way to bring it up.

Brooke pulled out the map again, since Jeremy was taking control of flying right now, and looked for the next village. It was coming up near a fork in the river. Brooke looked down at the river, and after following it for what seemed to be about a mile or so, spotted the fork.

“Jeremy, the next village is that way,” she said, pointing along the left split of the river.

“Got it,” Jeremy said, flying them towards it.

“It shouldn’t be long from there, actually,” Brooke said, peering down at the map.

“Good thing too,” Christine said. “It’s getting pretty late. We’ll have to stop and see where we can get some dinner.”

“I’m gonna need a minute,” Rich said. “I’m not a fan of, uh, descents.”

“Or ascents, apparently,” Brooke said, smirking back at him.

“I didn’t need that, thank you.”

Brooke chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’ll be there in ten minutes.”

That ended up being a good estimate, because it wasn’t much past that that they circled above the village for a little and landed just outside it. A couple people looked over at them, but this village was pretty used to tourists and new arrivals, so for the most part they continued going on about their evening.

“We know a good place to eat,” Jeremy said as he climbed off of the dragon. “Brooke and I have been here a couple times on missions.”

“Do you two always go on missions together?” Christine asked curiously, as she helped Rich down from the dragon.

“Yeah,” Brooke said. “Sometimes it’s more than just the two of us, but we’re official partners, so we always go together when we go on a mission.”

“Wow, you get to do all that with your best friend?” Rich asked. “That’s a pretty sweet deal.”

“Yeah, until she starts getting annoying,” Jeremy said, nudging Brooke with a smirk.

“Oh yeah,  _ I’m _ the annoying one,” Brooke said, shooting Jeremy a not-at-all serious glare before taking Bessie’s reins. “I’ll find someone who can house Bessie, you all can go get something to eat.”

Jeremy led them both towards the restaurant while Brooke led Bessie by the reins over to what looked like a dragon stable if the size was anything to go by.

“Hi,” Brooke said, as the stablehand walked out from inside. “Do you think you could house Bessie for a night? I don’t know how long we’ll be staying. I can come pay you more tomorrow if I have to.”

“Of course,” the stablehand said. She put Bessie in a stall, and Brooke gave him a couple of copper coins before heading back towards the restaurant.

Jeremy, Christine, and Rich were all sitting in a booth by a window space. She slid into the booth next to Jeremy and informed them all of Bessie’s location for the time being, and then the waiter came up to take their drink orders.

One of the reasons that Jeremy and Brooke liked this place was the service, so it wasn’t long before their food arrived, and since everyone was pretty hungry, it also wasn’t long until they finished eating. Brooke made sure to leave a large tip for the waiter, and then they all headed back outside to find an inn where they could stay for the night.

The town was pretty full at the moment for some reason. Brooke was too tired to ask why, but it meant there was only one room left with two double beds in them, so she was going to have to share with Jeremy, which she didn’t particularly mind.

What she did mind was Rich and Christine, who had both apparently neglected to mention the fact that they snored like a train.

Okay, so she’d probably adapt overtime, and it’s not like she was going to get mad at them about it, but that didn’t make it any less annoying at the moment. She wasn’t sure what kind of magic Jeremy was using, but somehow he managed to fall asleep.

Brooke rubbed her eyes and rolled over again. “Fuck, Jeremy what did you get us into?” she groaned, shoving the pillow over her head.

She had meant that in a joking manner, but the second she said it she started to consider.

First of all, she’d never climbed a mountain before. Almost no one had. As far as she knew, the Dew Mountains were the only mountain range in the land. People said it was part of what made the Red Staff magical.

People also said that if anyone tried to use the staff for the wrong reasons it would result in something horrible happening to them. Christine and Rich wanting to save their village was certainly a noble goal, but maybe the staff didn’t like being used to fight a war in any way. Maybe it didn’t want to take sides. That sounded weird and magicky enough to be possible. What if they were about to majorly fuck something up?

Brooke looked down at Jeremy. He looked peaceful for a second, and then his face scrunched up and he whimpered. Nightmare— they had never really gone away. Brooke reached down and pulled Jeremy into her side. He burrowed his head further into her chest without waking up, but eventually seemed to calm down.

“Oh fuck, Jeremy,” Brooke whispered, leaning back to lean against the headboard. “What did you get us into?”


	5. Chapter 5

Christine had decided that she did not like markets.

They had talked over it that morning and decided the best plan was to follow the river to get to the Mountains, hitting the villages along the way for supplies and also avoiding the desert, which was much too dry and large to be realistic to get through in time, even on a dragon. Unfortunately, this meant a much longer trip, quite a few more chances to get caught, and…

Markets.

They needed to stop to replenish supplies, since the next village was a couple of days past their food supply. But the market was loud and busy and more than a little overwhelming.

“Hey, Chrissy,” Rich murmured, nudging her in the side. “‘A poet could not but be gay.’”

Christine snorted and put her hand up to cover her mouth. “‘In such a jocund company,’” Christine said. “You said that just to make me laugh!”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Rich said with a grin.

Christine rolled her eyes, though she was grinning herself, when she heard Brooke gasp. “Oh my goodness, look!” She ran forward to look at something at a booth. “Jeremy!”

“What?” Jeremy asked, turning from where he was buying some fruit from the booth across the path.

“It’s cake!” Brooke cried in excitement, pointing at the one displayed.

“Uh, yeah,” Christine said, giving Brooke a confused look. “It sure is?”

“Oh hush, we never get sweets at the rebellion. We don’t have the space to grow the things necessary to make them. I haven’t had cake in  _ years.” _

“It looks really good,” Jeremy admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “How much would you charge for it?” he asked the shopkeeper.

“20 silver pieces,” the shopkeeper said easily.

“What?!” Rich exclaimed. “That’s insane!”

“Well next time tell your friend not to be so openly excited,” the man said, smirking at Brooke.

“Wha—” Brooke said, before sighing and starting to turn away.

“We could give you five copper pieces,” Jeremy said, clearly not ready to give up just yet.

The man gave Jeremy a once-over. “Throw in that cloak and we have a deal.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. But now, apparently, it was Brooke’s turn to get firm, because she whirled around and pulled Jeremy behind her. “Not for sale,” she snapped.

“Well, then no cake for you, hmm?”

Brooke glared. “I didn’t want it anyway,” she snapped. She marched away from the shop, pulling Jeremy with her, and followed closely by Christine and Rich.

“What a jerk,” Christine muttered.

“You did want it, didn’t you?” Jeremy asked.

Brooke whined. “So much.”

“Hang on.”

Christine gave Jeremy a puzzled look as he turned back around. The symbols on his cloak started glowing.

Christine blinked in surprise. “Jeremy, what are you—”

Jeremy walked off before Christine could finish, headed straight up to the stand and picked up the cake and a container to put it in, then headed back towards them, all without the shopkeeper even looking up from counting his money.

Christine gaped at him as he put the cake inside the container and closed it. “How did you do that?” she asked.

Before Jeremy could reply, Rich grabbed Christine’s arm. “You guys,” he hissed. “Squip soldiers.”

“What? Already? How is that possible?” Christine asked, but sure enough, when she looked in the direction Rich was staring in there was a group of Squip soldiers standing at one of the booths and clearly threatening the shopkeeper inside.

“We gotta go,” Brooke said, putting all of the food they got in a bag, bar the cake, which Jeremy held to his chest due to being too big to fit. They headed as quickly and quietly as possible for the other end of the market where the stables resided, and Bessie was being kept.

You would think they had done this countless times before with how fast they moved. Jeremy was checking outside to make sure none of the soldiers were getting too close, and the three of them were gathering everything and getting Bessie out the back entrance, while Brooke slipped the stable hand a couple more coins to make sure he didn’t say anything.

Jeremy met them around the back and climbed quickly onto Bessie a couple seconds before they took off.

“That was close,” Christine said, breathing heavily as she caught her breath. She glanced up and looked around to make sure nothing had been left behind. She tipped her head when her gaze fell on Jeremy. “Hey, Jeremy, where did you cloak go?”

Jeremy’s eyes widened. “What?” He looked down, as if he hadn’t been aware that he wasn’t still wearing it. Then his eyes widened further and he started looking around.

“Jeremy—” Brooke said, turning around from where she was steering the reins.

“That damn shopkeeper!” Jeremy snapped, looking back towards the ground. “He took it!”

“Jeremy, hang on, we don’t know that,” Brooke said, reaching behind and pulling Jeremy back onto Bessie. “Maybe it got caught on the side of the barn when you were running back towards us.”

Rich looked over Bessie’s side and winced. “Or maybe he’s walking back towards his booth wearing it and looking like a smug bastard.”

_ “What?” _ Jeremy rushed over to where Rich was looking and glared down towards where the shopkeeper was walking around the barn back towards the market.

“We’re going back,” Jeremy said.

“Jeremy, we can’t,” Christine said.

Jeremy whirled around and glared at Christine in a way that made her jump back in fear. “We. Are going.  _ Back,” _ he growled.

“Jeremy, buddy, it’s too dangerous,” Rich said hesitantly.

“You don’t get to say what’s too dangerous!” Jeremy snapped. “You two have barely been doing this for a week! Brooke and I have years of experience, and I say we’re going back!”

“Jeremy,” Brooke said firmly, turning around. “We don’t have time. If we go back now Christine and Rich will get caught.”

“Fuck them then!” Jeremy screamed.

_ “Jeremy!” _

Jeremy and Brooke engaged in a glaring match for a couple of seconds, before Jeremy seemed to deflate. He crawled back over to the other side of the saddle and buried his head in his knees.

Brooke sighed. “We’re not going to make it to the next village before dark. I’m going to find us a good place to make camp and we’ll stay there for the night. Any objections?”

Christine shook her head, and saw Rich doing the same out of the corner of her eye. Jeremy didn’t move from his spot curled into a ball across the saddle, so Brooke eventually sighed again and turned back to the reins.

Christine scooted over to the corner farthest away from the others, and Rich followed her. “So, uh, that was… something,” Christine said quietly to Rich.

“Uh huh.”

Neither of them really said anything for another moment. It took about a half hour or so for Brooke to find a good spot to land, and as soon as she did, Jeremy jumped off of Bessie and stormed off into the nearby woods.

Brooke sighed, and started unpacking, and before Christine could do the same, Rich grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to a tree out of earshot from Brooke.

“Okay, we’re out of here.”

Christine blinked at him in surprise. “What?”

“These two clearly don’t care about us if Jeremy wanted to go back and risk our lives for an article of clothing. Who knows if Brooke will be on his side next time or not. Let’s get out of here. We’ll be safer on our own.”

“Rich, we don’t have supplies, a map, or any way to get to the next village. We’ll run out of food before we get there if we don’t take Bessie,” Christine pointed out. “And we’re not going to take Bessie and leave them behind. That’s no better.”

“Fine, we’ll go with them to the next village before we leave then. Okay?”

Christine hesitated. Rich had a point. If they really were on the Squips most wanted list, and they couldn’t count on Jeremy and Brooke to watch their backs, they would be better off on their own.

“Okay,” she said eventually. “But for now let’s just go help unpack.”

Rich nodded, and they both headed over to where Brooke was setting the last of their supplies down.

“I can gather firewood,” Rich said. “If we’re going to be here after dark we’re going to want a fire.”

“Good idea,” Brooke said with a nod, and Rich headed off towards the woods. Christine was about to follow him when Brooke spoke up.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about Jeremy.”

Christine paused and turned hesitantly back around.

“He’s not the kind of person who would put you in danger, I promise.”

Christine bit her lip. “Why’d he say it then?”

Brooke sighed. “That cloak is really important to him,” she said. “It’s not my story to tell.”

“That’s convenient.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You probably don’t have much of a reason to trust us right now. Again.”

Christine blinked in surprise.

“But just give Jeremy a little time, okay? I swear he’ll apologize by tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Christine looked away. “That cloak is really that important to him?”

“More than you’re thinking. I don’t think you could understand.”

“But you won’t tell me anything.”

Brooke winced. “I’m sorry.”

Christine sighed. That wasn’t really much of an argument for trusting them. She was going to need more of a reason. But they were still kind of stuck right now. They didn’t have anywhere else to go. She looked away from Brooke, formulating the beginnings of a plan in her head.

“Go help Rich find some firewood,” she said eventually.

Brooke seemed to take her tone as anger, so she simply nodded and did what she asked. Christine waited until she was out of sight, and then grabbed the cake and climbed up on Bessie.

“Okay, this can’t be that hard, right?” Christine muttered to herself, flicking the reins. Bessie gave a grunt of surprise, but took off into the air.

“Woah!” Christine cried, grabbing on to Bessie’s neck. She managed to maneuver the reins enough to get them both flying back towards the town they just left.

“Bessie, slow down!” Christine hissed, trying to be quiet so as not to alert anyone just yet. She tugged on the reins and Bessie stopped abruptly. She glared back at Christine and blew a huff of smoke at her.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Christine said. “Work with me here, okay?”

Bessie huffed again but started forward at a much slower pace.

Christine gave a little huff herself before adjusting her grip on the reins. “I better not be risking my life for a jerk,” she muttered.

…

It took about ten minutes for Christine to get the hang of steering, and she was definitely not Bessie’s favorite person, but after that it went smoother.

The situation could have been better, but Christine could still appreciate her first time flying a dragon on her own. The view would always be amazing, but there was something to be said for knowing she could go faster or slower if she wanted to, or fly up above the clouds, or right down near the river.

It took her a little longer to make it back to the previous village due to being such an inexperienced flyer, but she made it there not long after noon, when she was realizing that taking some kind of food that wasn’t going to end up being her bargaining chip probably would have been a good idea.

The Squip soldiers weren’t in the market anymore when Christine approached, so she landed just outside it. The villagers moved quickly out of the way when she did, and Christine climbed down from Bessie, gently taking her reins and walking into the market with her in tow. A couple people jumped out of the way, and others ran straight from the market. Wow, this was a very stupid idea and she had to do this quickly.

Christine made her way to the shop they’d gotten the cake from, holding the cake itself with the hand not holding Bessie’s reins. She stopped just in front of the familiar booth, being careful to keep Bessie out of sight.

The shopkeeper recognized her instantly, and smiled at her in a way that made her want to grind her teeth. Jeremy’s cloak was hanging casually from a hook on the ceiling.

“Well hello again, Miss, what can I do for you?” the shopkeeper asked.

“You have something that belongs to my friend,” Christine said, nodding at the cloak.

“Oh, do I? Well, an eye for an eye is my policy. You stole from me. I steal from you.”

“We stole a cake,” Christine said, holding up the item in question. “Which I will give back. But that cloak is very important to my friend and I would also like it back please.”

The shopkeeper smiled a little broader and narrowed his eyes. “Sorry. All sales final.”

“No one sold it to you.”

“I offered you a fair price for the cake and you insisted on stealing it anyway.”

“It was nowhere near a fair price,” Christine said. “You were being a jerk to my other friend who really wanted it.”

“Hmm. And now it would seem I’ve been a jerk to two of your friends. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Now give me the cake back or I’ll go get those Squip soldiers you were all running from.”

Christine glared at the shopkeeper, mind made up. “Actually,” she said. “I was going to offer you a fair trade back, but now I think I’ll be having my cake and the cloak too. Because you’re a jerk and someone needs to teach you some manners, so I guess it’ll have to be me.”

The shopkeeper smiled condescendingly at her. “Oh? You and what army?”

“No army.” Christine tugged gently on the reins and pulled Bessie into sight. “Just a dragon.”

The shopkeeper’s face paled. Christine raised an eyebrow at him. Slowly, he reached for Jeremy’s cloak and handed it to her.

Christine beamed at him. “Thank you  _ so _ much! And I’m sure we’re going to just love your cake. Well, I should be off before those soldiers come back. Bye-bye!”

Christine turned, took Bessie’s reins again, and led her out of the village. She wasn’t stupid, after all. It’s not like she was going to take off right in the middle of the market after just having caused a commotion and threatening someone with a dragon.

She headed a good half mile or so out of the village, before setting the cake in the saddle, and tying the cloak around her shoulders just to make sure it didn’t end up blowing away. Then she climbed on Bessie, took a deep breath to prepare herself for the fact that she was probably going to get yelled at once she got back, and took off towards where they’d made their campsite.

She got there a little faster this time, but she was still pretty inexperienced with flying, so the sun was close to setting by the time she spotted their campsite.

Just like she expected, Brooke and Rich were both waiting when she climbed off of Bessie holding the cake, and neither of them looked happy.

“Okay, look, I know we gave you a reason to be mad,” Brooke said. “But do you have any idea how stupid that—”

Christine pulled the cloak from where it was wrapped around her shoulders and passed the cake to Brooke.

Brooke stopped talking and stared at her for a minute. “You— you got Jeremy’s cloak back?”

Christine nodded.

Brooke didn’t say anything else, so Rich took up the conversation.

“That still wasn’t smart.” He walked forward and smacked Christine on the arm, not hard enough to actually hurt her. “I was worried sick you idiot.”

“Sorry,” Christine said, rubbing the back of her neck.

Rich sighed, and pulled Christine forward into a hug. “Don’t do it again.”

“Promise.”

She pulled back from the hug to see the beginnings of a fire started in the middle of the snowy clearing.

“How did you get the fire lit with all the snow?” Christine asked.

Brooke glanced over at Christine and seemed to shake herself a little. “Fire sprites, remember?” she said. She pointed over at the fire.

Christine looked closer and could in fact see half a dozen or so fire sprites flying around close to the fire. She hummed a little in acknowledgement and turned back to Brooke one more time. “So where’s Jeremy?”

Brooke gestured over towards the woods. Christine glanced over to see a figure with his back to them who must have been Jeremy. She shifted the cloak to her shoulder and started over.

Jeremy didn’t acknowledge her when she approached, but she was pretty sure he knew she was there. “Hey.”

Jeremy sighed. “I just can’t tonight, Christine. I wouldn’t really put you in danger, alright? I’m sorry, I’ll apologize for real tomorrow—”

Christine cut him off by dropping his cloak in his lap.

Jeremy blinked at it, then up at Christine. “Wh— how did you—”

“I asked nicely.”

“…Really?”

“No.”

Jeremy picked up the cloak delicately, like it was something precious, and hugged it to his chest. “Thank you,” he whispered. He hesitated. “And I’m sorry.”

“It’s— it’s alright,” Christine said, sitting next to Jeremy on the log he was perched on. “I can tell when an object has sentimental value.” It was her turn to hesitate. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Jeremy muttered. “But you probably deserve an explanation as to why I was willing to screw you over for this thing.”

“I mean, I’d definitely like one.”

Jeremy sighed. He was quiet for another long moment.

“When I was little,” he said finally. “My best friend was this kid named Michael. The cloak was his.” Jeremy held it out in front of the two of them. “I’m sure you’ve suspected by now, but it’s a little bit magical.”

Christine nodded. “Yeah, I kinda guessed.”

“When the symbols glow, it can hide someone who wants to be hidden.”

“Like make them invisible? I saw you this morning.”

“Not invisible, more like… inconsequential? It makes people overlook you.”

“Ah.” That made sense, with why Brooke dressed in clothes that blended in, and Jeremy was never stared at, despite the cloak being very obvious.

“You can imagine how our games of hide and seek went,” Jeremy muttered.

Christine laughed. “You and Michael?”

Jeremy smiled a little and nodded. “The two of us lived in a village over in Squip territory. Michael was about the happiest kid you ever met for someone who was living in the middle of a war. He was really fascinated by magic, specifically the super old-style relics, so his moms found him the cloak at the market one day, and he like, practically died on the spot.”

Jeremy’s nostalgic smile faded a second later, and he started talking again. “Problem was, we both had this habit of going a little too close to the front. Michael liked to watch the fighters who used magical items. He wanted to see if he could figure out how his cloak worked.”

Christine felt her heart sink. She was pretty sure she already knew where this was going.

Jeremy looked away as he kept talking. “Then one day, we were watching a fight from a tree, and I slipped and fell, and broke my leg. A bunch of Squip soldiers started coming towards us. Michael got down from the tree, wrapped the cloak around my shoulders to hide me, and ran off to lead the Squips in the other direction.”

Christine said nothing. She wasn’t sure if anything she said would be helpful anyway, and it didn’t sound like Jeremy was done.

“So eventually I made it back home,” Jeremy said quietly. “My Dad took care of my leg, and I told him what happened. Then that night, I snuck out, and I didn’t go back.”

“Jeremy,” Christine whispered.

“This thing can really come in handy when you don’t want to be found,” Jeremy said, putting the cloak around his shoulders. “I went unnoticed for months. I lived mostly off of food I stole from the market. Until one day Brooke approached me out of nowhere and just started introducing herself. I asked why she was talking to me and she got this really baffled look and asked why wouldn’t she?” Jeremy was smiling a little bit. “She’s the one who convinced me to go home. My dad had been worried out of his mind. He thought the Squips came back and took me too.” Jeremy sniffed, and Christine reached out and put her hand on his shoulder.

“When I eventually told Brooke what the cloak did, she nodded with like, this super knowing look on her face and said of course the cloak wouldn’t work on her, because she always looked for people who felt like they didn’t matter.” Jeremy chuckled a little bit and wiped at his eyes. “I don’t know where I’d be without her.”

“Jeremy, I’m so sorry,” Christine whispered.

“It… it was years ago,” Jeremy murmured.

“That doesn’t mean you won’t still be upset.”

Jeremy sighed, and pulled his legs up onto the log, resting his head in his knees. “I tried to give the cloak back to Michael’s moms when I saw them again, but they wouldn’t take it. They just gave me a huge hug and told me to never disappear like that ever again.” Jeremy shut his eyes tightly. “We couldn’t find them when the Squips invaded our village. I was with Brooke and Dad, but eventually we had to run. I haven’t seen them since.”

Christine reached over and pulled Jeremy into a hug. Jeremy returned it immediately, and they both sat there for a moment.

“I’m really sorry about earlier,” Jeremy mumbled into Christine’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t actually put you in danger, I swear. I was just upset.”

“It’s okay,” Christine said, completely meaning it this time. “It wouldn’t have been a problem if the Squip soldiers weren’t there already. We could have gone back.”

Jeremy seemed to pause and pull back, and from the look on his face it was clear he was thinking about something else. “Hey, why were they there already? The closest village between here and the front is dozens of miles away. They couldn’t have found this village that quickly unless they already knew it was there. There’s no way.”

“Then… they must have already known it was there somehow,” Christine said.

“How?”

“Don’t ask me. We’ll have to figure it out. But for now… you should probably tell Rich what you told me. He’s pretty mad at you two.”

Jeremy sighed. “Yeah, alright,” he said. “Let’s go.”


	6. Chapter 6

There were days Jenna wondered if being so highly regarded by the Squips was worth it.

Most days, the answer was a strong and immediate “Yes.” She would do anything she could to help the people who had raised her, and the extra perks like a single room and a whole office to herself to do her work did not hurt. The days she questioned whether or not it was worth it usually came on the days her babysitting duties came into play.

Okay, fine, maybe babysitting was— a  _ little _ harsh. But could you blame her? The new “guard” they had assigned to her might as well be being guarded by her for how much help he needed with existing.

“Michael!” Jenna snapped, shoving him away from her console yet again. “Would you back up already?!”

Michael did just that. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m just kinda curious about that thing there. What does it do?”

Jenna took a deep breath. “As I have told you  _ three times already,” _ she growled out. “That’s the navigator. It figures out the fastest way to direct someone to a village after I think I’ve found all of the possibilities. And I swear, Michael, if you ask about it again I’m going to knock your teeth in.”

She’d explained it to him just yesterday. He was only asking because he knew it would annoy her.

Thankfully, Michael was quiet for at least a moment. Jenna turned back to the mapping system and flicked another switch. She needed to find the next village by her dinner break or her superiors would get seriously ticked off. She typed a command in and sat back for a minute as the machine worked.

“So what’s it doing now?”

Jenna took a deep breath. “Michael, can you go get me a coffee? You can grab whatever you want for yourself while you’re there,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, okay,” Michael said, and headed out the door.

Jenna breathed a sigh of relief. A piece of paper printed out to the right. Nothing. Jenna thought for a moment before typing another command in. Maybe somewhere in between her third guess and fourth guess…

Another two minutes gave her an answer.  _ Bingo. _

Jenna sent the information off and leaned back in her seat to take a moment of rest. A couple seconds later she sat back up to work on the next location. Just because she’d been praised lately for raising productivity so much did not mean they didn’t expect her to work just as hard.

It took Michael much too long to come back with the coffee. But that was more of a good thing, as Jenna had gotten pretty close to finding another village while he was gone.

Jenna turned when the door open and took in Michael’s appearance with surprise. He looked much more exhausted than he’d been maybe twenty minutes ago, and he nearly stumbled as he crossed the room and handed Jenna her coffee.

“What the hell happened to you?” Jenna asked, taking a sip.

Michael winced. “Nothing,” he mumbled, trudging back over towards the door. It seemed to take him considerable effort to not lean on it.

“Fucking hell, just come sit down,” Jenna groaned, gesturing to the empty chair next to her for whenever a supervisor came in to watch her work. “You look like you’re going to collapse.”

Michael gasped out a thank you, walked over and followed her prediction to a tee by practically collapsing in the chair. She wondered for a brief second what had happened to him before turning back to the maps she was looking at.

After a while, Michael seemed to have caught his breath, because he spoke up again. “Hey, what does this do?”

Jenna looked over to find him looking down at the navigator. She groaned.

…

It had been a long time now since Jenna had slept in the same room as another person. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like. Not that she necessarily minded. Single rooms were about as nice you could get here unless you were The Squip himself.

Her room was fairly small, but comfortable. The bed was soft and the memory foam made it even better. She had a dresser with all the hair care products she could want and enough outfits for one per day up to a week. And the best part, it was quiet. Especially at night. For someone who spent her whole day being pestered by Michael, some superior who wanted more done, or on rare occasions even The Squip, Jenna appreciated it.

A lot of the time she set her alarm for an hour before she had to actually get up, so she could have a little bit of time to sit and enjoy the silence. Usually around the time she had to get up, everyone in the barracks was getting up too, and she heard them moving around outside in the hall, so it worked out nicely. Having a room next to the sick bay wasn’t as nice, especially when someone was in enough pain to scream, but people didn’t use it that often, so it worked out alright. It was better than having a room next to the cafeteria, or the garbage disposal like the barracks were.

The single room certainly didn’t stop Jenna from having to eat in the cafeteria, though, so she usually tried to get in there pretty early and get the first and best of the food that was there. She didn’t really like to sit with other people, as the soldiers were always talking about whatever it was that had happened on the latest mission they’d gone on, or how boring it was to be on guard duty, and as someone who did neither of those things, Jenna usually felt left out of the conversation.

It didn’t take her long to finish her breakfast, and then she headed straight to her workroom. Thankfully, Michael wasn’t going to be there until he finished his own breakfast, which gave her another ten minutes or so. She could get a lot done in ten minutes.

In fact, she had almost found another village when Michael walked in. He didn’t say anything, just moved over and stood by the door. Jenna glanced back for a half second when he walked in just to make sure he wasn’t someone who she needed to pay attention to, and then turned back to the navigator. She had just sent off another list of directions when the door opened again, and Jenna turned her chair around, Michael standing up straighter at the same moment.

“Jenna.” Jenna sat up straighter as she realized who it was.

“Good morning ma’am.”

The woman looked over at Michael, and tipped her head towards the hallway. “Go get me some coffee. Have it back here before I leave.”

Michael nodded and jumped up, rushing out the door quickly.

Now that they were alone, the woman turned back to Jenna. Jenna could never quite get used to how cold she made herself look. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would choose to look cruel on purpose. She didn’t understand it when she talked to The Squip, either.

“Your productivity has been slipping,” the woman said, writing a note on her clipboard. Jenna swallowed.

“Sorry, ma’am. I know I got a lot done right off the bat, but I’m getting into some areas that are more hidden now, so it’s taking me a little longer to find them.”

“I didn’t ask for excuses,” the woman said, looking up at Jenna and raising an eyebrow.

Jenna had to stop herself from outwardly flinching. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“Get three villages found by the end of the day at least. You don’t want me to take away your single room privileges, do you?”

“No, ma’am. I found a village just now, ma’am,” Jenna said, smiling hopefully up at the woman.

“Find three more then.”

Jenna looked down instantly. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good. I don’t care how late you have to stay up, just get it done. I won’t get yelled at again because your performance is lacking.”

Jenna nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“Where is that kid? I sent him off at least half a minute ago.” The woman turned and looked down the hallway, but she must not have seen any sign of Michael, because she let out a harsh sigh and turned back to Jenna. “Send him to my office when he gets back. I’ll have a few words for him. You know where it is, don’t you?”

Jenna nodded.

“Good.” The woman walked across the room, and Jenna had to fight once again to not outwardly show her anxiety. The woman put a finger under Jenna’s chin and lifted it up towards her. “You’ve brought us good things so far, Jenna. Don’t screw it up.”

Jenna nodded. “Yes, Mom,” she whispered.

The woman dropped her chin and started back over towards the exit. “If you finish finding those villages by six come join me for dinner,” she said, and with that she walked out of the room.

Jenna gave herself three seconds to look down and fight back tears before turning back around towards the mapping system and putting in another set of coordinates. The door opened another second later and Jenna heard the distinct sound on Michael gasping for breath.

“She left thirty seconds ago,” Jenna snapped, whirling around to face him. “Go take the coffee to her office.”

“Uh,” Michael pulled in another breath. “Where’s that?”

Jenna groaned, stood up, and walked over to grab Michael’s arm, pulling him out the door after her. She pointed towards the offices on the other side of the hallway. “Third one down,” she said, waving Michael over towards it before turning around and marching back towards the mapping system. She had three villages to find.

She didn’t manage to get very far, however, before Michael came back from his coffee run and stood back by the door again.

Jenna tried really hard not to acknowledge his presence, as if that would stop him from being the worst guard in the history of the world.

Thankfully, he at least didn’t talk at first. Jenna eventually ended up losing herself in her work, and Michael faded from her awareness until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Jenna yelped and whirled around, finding Michael standing behind her. “What?!” she snapped.

“It’s noon,” Michael said, pointing at the clock on the wall that Jenna hadn’t looked at all morning. “Are you going to be wanting lunch?”

“Um,” Jenna rubbed at the bridge of her nose to stop the oncoming headache. “Yeah, whatever. Go get me whatever the cafeteria’s serving. Get something for yourself too.”

Michael nodded, and headed out the door as Jenna turned back around and focused back on the mapping system.

Michael returned much too quickly and put a ham and cheese sandwich down next to her. Jenna ignored it for what Michael deemed to apparently be too long, because he cleared his throat.

Jenna turned and glared at him.

“I just, I think you should eat,” Michael said softly, backing up a couple steps.

Jenna grabbed the sandwich and took a bite out of it, then slammed it down on the plate again. Michael stepped back a little in what looked like nervousness. Good. At least that would keep him away from her for longer.

She took bites from the sandwich every now and then and finished the water bottle, then sent Michael off to get another one that could hopefully help with her headache. He wasn’t gone for long enough that time, either. Never was. At least he was relatively quiet that day.

Jenna had managed to find two villages by 5:30, and when she glanced at the clock and saw the time she began working twice as hard to find the last one. She was ten minutes away from doing so, if she could just get the coordinates right.

Michael’s footsteps started coming closer, and Jenna shifted in her chair.

“Hey, Jenna?”

“Not now, Michael,” Jenna said, trying very hard to make her voice not sound tense. “Go get me some coffee.”

“You want coffee this late in the evening?”

“Go get me some water, then!” Jenna snapped.

Michael slowly sat down in the chair next to her. “Hey, are you okay? You’ve seemed really stressed all day.”

“Michael. Not. Now.”

“Is this because of that woman from this morning?”

_ “Michael!” _

Michael, thankfully, stopped talking, at least for a minute. Jenna typed another set of coordinates into the mapping device. Damn, just a little off. If she could just—

“So, hey, what does this thing here do?” Michael asked curiously.

Jenna glanced over to see, surprise surprise, Michael looking down at the fucking navigator.

“Michael!” she snapped, her blood boiling over. “You know what it does, not even you are stupid enough to forget what it does every couple of hours, could you just— just go do  _ anything _ else!” Jenna snapped, reaching over before she could really think about what she was doing and shoving Michael off of the chair.

Michael cried out in surprise and landed hard on his back.

Jenna froze and leaned backed in her chair. She hadn’t really thought she’d hit him that hard.

A couple seconds passed, and Michael didn’t move. “Michael?” she said hesitantly. “Come on, get up.”

She hesitantly stood up and was about to climb over the other chair so as to see Michael better, when he suddenly stared twitching.

Okay, she knew she hadn’t done anything to cause that.

“Michael?”

Michael jerked again, nearly slamming his head into the console, and whimpered in pain.

“Michael?! Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

Michael made no response other than to curl into a ball.

“Michael!”

Michael still didn’t reply, and Jenna didn’t have any chance to question him further, because Michael jerked backwards again with another cry of pain and slammed himself into the console for real this time, and before Jenna could say anything else, he went limp on the floor.

Now, Jenna didn’t really consider herself a calm person. Her easy irritation with Michael was proof enough of that. But she was pretty sure that absolutely no one would blame her for freaking out in the current situation, even if the person in question was normally calm.

“Oh fuck oh fuck I killed him! I fucking— Michael?!” Jenna leaned down and checked his wrist. Pulse. Pretty weak, but— growing stronger now? Way stronger, almost back to what seemed like normal. Woah. Okay, she could figure that out later, for now she needed to get him to the sick bay, or something, or—

Jenna pulled in a gasping breath before letting it out much more calmly. Okay, let’s think about this. Her room was probably a better option. The people in charge weren’t very fond of anyone using sick days, and if Michael was fine by tonight then she could have potentially gotten him in trouble for no reason. If Michael didn’t wake up by the next morning, she could take him to the sick room.

Jenna hoisted Michael up as best she could, eventually shifting to carry him in her arms, and headed for the door. She peeked out, and seeing no one there, she headed quickly through the hallways and back towards her room, following her instincts as her best bet to stay away from any potential people.

She got to her room interaction-free, and set Michael down on her bed. He looked almost normal again, which confused her, but she supposed it was a good thing. Jenna was just about to go see if she could find some water or something when Michael shifted on the bed. Okay, no way he should be better that quickly. What was going on?

Michael groaned and blinked his eyes open. He rubbed at his eyes, looking like he was not at all concerned with the fact that he just had some kind of seizure or something.

“Michael?”

Michael jolted a little in surprise and looked over at her. “Jenna? What are you doing here?”

“This is my room. You had some kind of weird fit and passed out on the ground, dude, what the hell?”

Michael winced. “Oh, you uh, you saw that?”

Jenna stared at him. “Well, it would be kinda hard to miss,” she said in bafflement.

Michael chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Um. Yeah.”

“What happened?” Jenna asked, sitting down on the end of the bed.

Michael bit his lip and looked away before sighing. “Those just kinda… happen sometimes, okay? It’s a side effect.”

Jenna blinked at him. “A side effect of what?”

Michael turned and stared at her in confusion. “Of… getting your mind wiped. You know, that thing they do when you first get here?”

Jenna blinked at him again.

“How do you not know about that?”

“I mean… I grew up here. That’s never happened to me. I do know that’s a thing, but I’ve never heard of anyone having side effects. And I don’t think they do it to everyone.” Jenna leaned closer to Michael and gently took his head, looking over it to see if he had hurt himself when he slammed into the console. “What kind of side effects are we talking about?”

“I— okay, would you stop?” Michael batted her hands away. “I’m fine. I know what a concussion feels like, Jenna.”

“How do you know? Did you have one recently? Do we need to go to the sick bay?”

_ “No.” _ Michael sighed. “Would you stop mother henning me? That’s not what you do, it’s weirding me out.”

“Okay, but only if you tell what kind of side effects you experience.”

Michael sighed. “Every now and then I get these random memory lapses. It’s basically a couple minutes where I don’t really know where I am or what’s going on. Kinda feels like a static electricity shock. It can also erase a couple memories at random. But it’s really not a big deal, okay?”

Jenna gaped at him. “It erases memories again? Wait, is that why you asked my name like, six times the first week we met? Michael, I thought you were just super bad at names!” Jenna ran a hand through her hair. “Wait, could you forget my name again?”

Michael shook his head. “Not very likely. We’ve known each other for too long now. I also wrote your name down after you got annoyed with my asking. I have a notebook of stuff I need to remember.”

“Okay, hang on.” Jenna sat back against the wall, looking over at Michael again. “How did you not get the treatment?”

“What treatment?”

Jenna’s gaze turned very concerned. “The treatment that they give people after they do mind wipe stuff? Did— Michael, did you not get that?”

Michael slowly shook his head. “There’s a treatment?”

Jenna put her hand over her mouth. “Holy shit, Michael.” She ran through what she knew about the mind wipe process in her head, but she couldn’t think of anyone slipping through the cracks in the way Michael clearly had.

“Okay,” Jenna said, narrowing her eyes in determination. “Okay, Michael. I’m going to see what I can find out about this, alright?”

Michael blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“I’m gonna see if I can learn what happened with you. When did all of this first happen?”

“When I first got here, really. I think I was like, nine or so? Maybe ten?”

“Okay,” Jenna said, trying to ignore the higher level of concern she got from that statement. “I’ll look at some files and see what there is. There has to be some other instances of something like this happening before. You can stay here tonight, I’ll be up late anyway. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the sick bay?”

“No, everyone there always looks super disappointed whenever you take a sick day. I can really just go back to the barracks, it’s not a big deal—”

“Nope. You stay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Michael sighed. “Alright. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jenna said as she headed out, and was surprised to find that she meant it.

…

Michael was a little late arriving the next morning, but Jenna wouldn’t have blamed him even if he hadn’t also brought them both breakfast. Jenna took her own breakfast and turned back to work while she was eating.

She didn’t hear Michael walk away at first, and was about to turn and ask him if he could give her a little space when he spoke up. “Hey, what does this thing here do?”

Jenna turned to see what he was looking at. “That’s the navigator,” she said hesitantly. “It figures out the fastest way to direct someone to a village after I think I’ve found all of the possibilities.”

“Huh.” Michael looked down at it for another second before he grinned a little. “Cool.”

Jenna couldn’t stop a small smile of her own from forming. “I know, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there is the map of the Squip base as well as the main map with Squip conquered territory.
> 
> Unfortunately, this may be my last chapter for a while. I've had the unfortunate luck of being hit with writers block and a lack of motivation at the same time that my workload from school has gone up quite a bit. I do intend to finish this story, but it might be a little bit before I can pick it up again. I'm sorry about that.


End file.
